More times than we'd like to admit gardeners have consequences on the environment. What happens when happy plants leave the garden and find a home in the wild? Well, then they have invaded the native plant community pushing out native plants to make room for themselves.
At the bottom of my friends' property is a large area of Myosotis sylvatica (not palustris, but ahem... that is what I thought it was), the forget me not, growing nearly as a monoculture. Native to Europe and Asia it seems very happy in Sonoma county. I have to be honest and say that I don't know which native plant would grow there otherwise, but it's gorgeous. So what do you do? It's hard not to love a true blue meadow.
At the bottom of my friends' property is a large area of Myosotis sylvatica (not palustris, but ahem... that is what I thought it was), the forget me not, growing nearly as a monoculture. Native to Europe and Asia it seems very happy in Sonoma county. I have to be honest and say that I don't know which native plant would grow there otherwise, but it's gorgeous. So what do you do? It's hard not to love a true blue meadow.
Well, it may be a bit daunting in a space this size, but I have it all over the place (and have for years) and I find it really easy to thin and pull where unwanted.Sometimes I curse unattractively while doing so.
ReplyDeleteThere's the scene in Howard's End where Vanessa Redgrave walks through a field of bluebells in a long dress trailing on the ground. That's what I see in these photos. Gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteI'm conflicted about invasives too. I think you commented on that post where I fell in love with all the milk thistle in Deb's Park even though it's not native.
ReplyDeleteI actually have a couple of volunteer mexican fan palms in a pot because I'm too weak to eradicate them. It's hard for me not to root for something that is trying so hard to grow.
I also saw A Growing Obsession's mention of your Cedrus deodara. A friend gave me two of them a couple years ago and I only managed to get one in the ground. Now I wish I'd figured out where to put the second one because the one in the ground is about twice as big now. Yours looks bluer than mine so maybe we have different varieties. I love their arching branches. I want it to be 20 years from now so I can look up the hill and see it towering over the house.
Is this really M. palustris? That's a bog plant. M. sylvatica is the standard garden forget-me-not. Always too lovely to be properly ruthless with!
ReplyDeleteJohn. Thanks for correcting me I wasn't sure about the ident. Glad you take the time to read the blog!
ReplyDeleteMr. PVH.
ReplyDelete1) yes there are so many pretty bad plants around
2) Fan palms should be killed with the ease of squashing a snail
3) Cedrus 'Feelin' Blue' is very weepy so I would think you have the regular species, which are the main reason why I like Los Feliz blvd. Beautiful!
Denise, it was very English woodland, they do monoculture very well over there.
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